CONSERVATIVE REPORTEDLY WILL BE THE NOMINEE FOR A KEY BAPTIST POSITION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992                   TAG: 9201310376
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: FORT WORTH, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Medium
CONSERVATIVE REPORTEDLY WILL BE THE NOMINEE FOR A KEY BAPTIST POSITION
A conservative leader from Wichita Falls who is president of the Southern Baptist Convention will be nominated to head the denomination's powerful executive committee, according to Baptist sources.
The Rev. Morris Chapman, pastor of First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, will be nominated as president-treasurer of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, according to the the Rev. Julian Motley of Durham, N.C., who told Baptist Press, the denomination's news service.
The executive committee handles $140 million in funds that support six seminaries, including Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth; the foreign and home mission boards; the Sunday School Board; the Baptist Radio and Television Commission in Fort Worth; and other agencies.
The formal vote on Chapman will be at a Feb. 17-19 meeting of the executive committee in Nashville, Tenn., said Motley, chairman of a search committee. He said another conservative leader, Paige Patterson, president of Criswell College in Dallas, was a runner-up for the nomination.
Whether Chapman will resign as Baptist president hasn't been determined.
Motley said the decision could depend on when Chapman takes office. The Rev. Harold Bennett, 67, current head of the executive committee, is retiring effective Oct. 1.
Chapman, 51, has been elected twice as Baptist president, a non-paying position. He completes his second term in June.
Chapman is a part of the inner circle of conservative leaders who led a successful political effort to win control of the nation's largest Protestant denomination from moderates.
He has been one of the strongest supporters of biblical inerrancy - the belief that most of the events mentioned in the Bible literally happened - as set forth in a report from the Southern Baptist Peace Committee.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB